In line with the rapidly increasing number of NAUTIS Maritime Simulator clients worldwide, VSTEP continues to innovate and has developed a software interface for IMO Type Approved radar and chart radar systems. This makes radar and ECDIS training possible on real radar and ECDIS systems, instead of emulated systems and allows radar quality enhancements for all simulator types.
The new interface provides enhancements and benefits for maritime simulators. For example, with regards to the ECDIS training in a classroom set-up, one instructor can provide a large number of trainee radar systems with radar video and NMEA data input, while showing the outside view and navigation instruments on a projection screen. This makes high quality, yet affordable radar and ECDIS training possible.
Also larger simulator set-ups can benefit from the radar interface. The previous “no-brand” radar simulators can be replaced with real Type Approved radar systems, still running on a standard PC, without any need for special interface hardware. Some of VSTEP’s Full Mission Bridge Simulator clients have already been upgraded with Type Approved radar systems from Kelvin Hughes and MARIS, to benefit from this increased quality. The Kelvin Hughes and MARIS ECDIS systems can show the NAUTIS radar video as an overlay on the chart view, satisfying a recommendation from the IMO in the new ECDIS Model Course 1.27, published in July 2012.
Summarizing the unique features of the NAUTIS Radar Interface :
IMO Type-Approved radar systems can be used for training at an affordable price level, both for classroom set-ups and Full Mission Bridge Simulators
IMO Type-Approved ECDIS systems can show a radar video overlay image, needed for the new IMO ECDIS Model Course 1.27No special processing is required for new training environments and vessels; the radar image is always in sync with the outside view image.
NAUTIS and the Radar & ECDIS systems all run on standard Windows PCs
Huib Gerretsen, Managing Director of De Ruyter Training & Consultancy (DRTC) B.V. : “We recently purchased NAUTIS Desktop Simulators for our facility, each with 3 outside view displays, and a corresponding radar overlay image on the Kelvin Hughes MantaDigital ECDIS. These simulators give our students an excellent tool to learn all about ECDIS and how it is used on board.”
Pjotr van Schothorst, VSTEP’s CTO: “We wanted to provide our customers with high quality yet affordable solution for all their radar/ARPA and ECDIS training requirements, running on standard PCs which can be bought anywhere in the World. We have been working on this solution for over 2 years, and there is a lot of clever software behind all this, yet it is all made available with a very simple Windows style user-interface. The radar video is created in NAUTIS using a realistic radar ray-casting simulation process. All land objects like hills, buildings and port cranes, and all vessels show up on the radar at exactly the same place as in the 3D outside view environment of NAUTIS. New vessels and new port environments can soon be created by clients themselves using the NAUTIS Port Creator software, and will also show up automatically on the radar video image.”
VSTEP has made special arrangements with Kelvin Hughes and MARIS to supply their radar/ARPA and ECDIS systems as software-only to maritime schools at an attractive price level. These systems have exactly the same functionality as their integrated, IMO Type-Approved on-board equivalents.